Important Role Customer Success Plays In Improving Business Growth and Profit Margins

Startup founder (let’s call him Jayjay) had heard about the benefits of customer success, But he thought it was all a joke; that it was something pessimistic business executives paid attention to. Until he experienced a sharp decline in his profit margins. His customer care support team explained that their customers hadn’t been able to use their software. But Jayjay had ignored their complaints. It all seemed weird that such a thing could make to mar a business.

During a brief consultation. a business expert recommended that a special team be dedicated to handling customer success (CS). In the beginning, Jayjay was skeptical. But eventually, he acquiesced. Jayjay was uncomfortable about the way CS strategies tended to shake the basics of his business and how it fostered positive change in departmental operations. Never had he envisaged that each department would have to communicate and pay attention to customer feedback.

Furthermore, Jayjay was shocked to find that the customer success strategies had began yielding positive results. The experts were right. In this article, we will explore the various benefits of customer success, especially the ways in which Jayjay’s company benefited from them. The article is supposed to serve as a guide for beginners and as an encouragement to business owners who are already employing CS strategies.

Before we continue, let’s define customer success. Customer success is a broad management term. Customer success is a situation where your client succeeds in achieving their desired goal primarily through their interaction with your business or company. This means that the customer has achieved their desired result because they have used your product and service.

Customer success is essential because the business landscape is changing. In the past, companies could rely on annual subscription for business growth. Nowadays, companies are assembling teams to handle customer success management. Why? According to business experts, customer success can:

In this article, we will focus on the roles that successful firms (like Jayjay’s) play to facilitate the customer’s evolution from the buyer stage to the ultimate customer success journey. In other words, we shall look at the roles customer success played in helping customers get value from his products.

The Role Of Customer Success in Onboarding And Implementation

Many SaaS businesses assume that their products are comprehensible and therefore, easy to use. Often they are wrong. Onboarding plays the role of helping new customers to interact with the product and service in a healthier way. With onboarding, customers are likely to learn how to use the product without hassles.

When Jayjay’s customer success team started working, customer feedback improved dramatically. Customers had more positive customer success journeys and were more likely to remain with the company.

Onboarding is a very tactical phase in customer success management. Smart business owners ensure that they help their customers get value for their money. If you have a company, ensure that your customers maximize the advantages that your company has to offer.

The adoption phase plays a very important role too. Experts suggest that the success of customer success project is reliant on this phase. CS teams must do their best to check and enhance the time-to-value the client receives during the initial interaction. We cannot overemphasize the role that onboarding and adoption plays in improving the customer’s experience.

If you want your customers to renew their subscriptions and to spread positive news about your company, make sure that you make a good first impression. Don’t forget. Word-of-mouth remains the best and most effective form of advertisement.

In a nutshell, your CS team should do their best to:

Reduce time-to-value for first time clients: CS teams can do this through finding creative ways to create a positive onboarding experience for the new user. They can also achieve this through assigning a priority to scoring fast wins.

Understand the customer’s needs and figure out how the company’s products can help to provide solutions. To increase the chances of success, team members can set milestones for successes.

Strike a balance: Find and hit the sweet spot between engagements (end user support, training seminars, kickoff calls, onboarding sessions and so on) and the sophisticated tech side of things (such as help, tool callouts and so on) end-user training), and provide support with relevant content resources.

Excellent onboarding and adoption can earn you two times the conversion rate.

Role in Retaining Existing Customer Patronage

Experts warn against customer churn. A slight change in churn can adversely affect the company’s profit margins. It took Jayjay a long time to learn this. Things changed when he began implementing CS strategies in his company. So effective were the strategies, his company’s customer retention rate began to rise.

Prioritizing customer retention is a good business move. It’s relatively easier to retain customers who have built their lives and businesses around your products. Because they understand the value of your company, they are more likely to stick with you. However, you have to you’re your role by ensuring that your CS strategies are effective. Always remember that your competitors are a click or phone call away; they are waiting to welcome your clients with very exciting products of their own.

What can your CS team do about this?

They can get valuable feedback from your customers. This way, they make it easier for your company to improve products so that the clients get more value for their money and time.

Again, your company must focus on the outcome. How effective was that recent update? How much did it improve the customers’ experience/?

Your CS team should be able to pinpoint signs of customer churn on time. This will enable them to prevent customer churn..

It is easier and cheaper to retain existing customers. CS management actually plays a big role in increasing profit and preventing losses.

Most companies offer a wide range of products. And customers are likely to patronize a company if they had a positive experience with one of the company’s products.

Jayjay’s tech company had a wide range of software for sale. They sold antiviruses, time tracking software and more. When the company started losing it’s antivirus clients, the other software recorded lower sales as well. It took the intervention of the CS team to work a miracle and to improve sales.

Ensuring that customers achieve their desired results can go a long way to increase patronage. In some cases, customers choose to subscribe for higher plans and other times, they encourage other people to patronize other company products. CS strategies really do promote business growth and expansion.

What can customer success teams do to promote expansion?

They can nudge customers to make more purchases especially since they know what the client’s needs are. If a client needs a higher plan, they can encourage and help them make the subscription. If the client needs more licenses, they can help the client buy more product licenses, and so on.

CS team members can play an advisory role through recommending more suitable product options. They can recommend expansion options to clients who need it.

Finals thoughts on the roles of customer success strategies.

Customer success plays important roles in driving business growth and expansion, in recording more successful onboarding and adapting experiences as well as in promoting customer retention. The easiest way to drive growth is to implement customer success strategies.